The case of a troubled Texas hospital system shows how a federal program that distributes funds to help computerize health-care records has been vulnerable to fraud.
The Dallas Morning News reports that it also shows the challenges in recouping the money that wasn't used for those purposes.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department gave nearly $18 million through its $24 billion stimulus program to Tariq Mahmood's rural hospital chain.
The newspaper reported in 2013 that the vast majority of the money wasn't used to upgrade the hospital's electronic records.
Joe White, who managed the chain, was sentenced to 23 months in prison. Mahmood was sentenced to 11 years for separate crimes of billing fraud.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
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